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With a Bing and a Wave, the Microsoft Google battle continues

by Scott Bicheno on 28 May 2009, 18:07

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qasgo

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Bing, and the dirt is gone!

As predicted on HEXUS.net yesterday, Microsoft has unveiled its new search engine today. Except Bing is not, in fact, a search engine at all - it's a decision engine, says Microsoft.

Before you try to work out what that means, let's add another attempted paradigm shift to your burden. Current search engine king Google has chosen this very same day to unveil an initiative of its own called Wave, which adds a bunch of new capabilities to existing Google mail and instant messaging services.

Back to Bing, which is expected to be available globally on 3 June, Microsoft says it builds on existing search engine technology, but chucks in a load of extra tools to assist the most common types of query that people might use a search engine for.

Initially this means: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition and finding a local business.

There are lots of terms like "empowerment", "intuitive" and "user experience" in the press release and Microsoft reckons as many as 30 percent of web searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result.

"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.

"When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions."